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Raed Salah completed his primary, middle, and high school education in Umm Al-Faham before moving to the Islamic University in Galilee, from which he received a bachelor’s degree in Islamic Sharia. He descends from a Palestinian family that refused to leave its homeland following the occupation of Palestine in 1948. He is the Chairman of the Islamic Movement in the occupied Palestinian territories of 1948, the Supreme Council for Islamic Da’wa, and Al-Aqsa Society for Restoration of Revered Islamic Shrines and the Islamic Relief Foundation. A highly respected Islamic personality, Shaikh Salah remains a relentless fighter against aggression towards Palestinians and their Holy shrines.

Shaikh Raed Salah emerged as an Islamic activist from an early age and worked in the field of Islamic Dawah since his years in high school. He was one of the founding members of the Islamic Movement in Occupied Palestine during the 1970’s and an editor of Al-Sirat Al-Islami (Islamic Path) magazine. He was elected three times as a Chairman of Umm Al-Faham municipality before deciding to devote his entire time to his other responsibilities, particularly restoration and protection of Al-Aqsa mosque.

Shaikh Salah struggled unyieldingly to protect Islamic shrines from attempts to demolish or use them for other purposes. In August 2000, he was elected as a Chairman of Al-Aqsa Society for Restoration of Revered Islamic Shrines, which played a major role in defending mosques throughout Palestine and in exposing and challenging the construction of a tunnel under Al-Aqsa mosque. He also succeeded in averting Israeli plans to take over the mosque’s affairs from Muslims and organized the massive “Al-Buragh march” in which he led tens of thousands of worshippers to pray in the mosque. He also succeeded with his colleagues in restoring the Marawani praying quarters and opening its gates for worshippers, and in refurbishing, cleaning, and lighting the old Aqsa and constructing more ablution areas and restrooms for worshippers. He revived the historical “stairs classes,” especially Tuesday class in Al-Aqsa mosque, which is attended by about 5000 Muslims weekly. He contributed to the establishment of “Al-Aqsa Child Fund”, which fosters about 16000 Palestinian children. Besides, he organizes the annual event “Bait Al-Maqdis is in Danger” during the Holy month of Ramadan in which thousands of Palestinians in the occupied land participate. He also assists in organizing Al-Aqsa Scientific and Cultural Competition and in producing documentary films and books on Al-Aqsa mosque and the threats it is facing.

It was not surprising that Shaikh Salah’s activities as a Chairman of the Islamic Movement in Palestine have subjected him to considerable harassment by the occupying forces including arrests, assassination attempts, and periods of imprisonment. However, none of this dissuaded him from continuing his struggle in defending Al-Aqsa Mosque and other Islamic shrines in his country. In 2010, he also participated in the Turkish Freedom Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid in an attempt to break the maritime blockade on Gaza Strip. Israeli warships raided them, killing 16 and injuring more than 36 unarmed participants and took Shaikh Salah and others to the Port of Ashdod.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Sulaiman Al-Rajhi moved from Al-Bukayriyah in Al-Qassim to Riyadh as a child with his father and started working at the age of nine. After a few years of undertaking peripheral jobs, he joined his elder brother’s business in changing money for pilgrims taking camel caravans across the desert to Makkah to perform Hajj. In the mid 1950’s, he moved to Jeddah, where he started his own business in currency exchange with pilgrims. He was unprecedentedly successful in his business, and his wealth and investments grew and expanded vastly through the years. He is currently the principal stakeholder and the Chairman of Al-Rajhi bank, a mammoth Saudi company and the largest Islamic bank in the world. Besides, he owns large corporations investing in agriculture, animal production, industry, and construction. Today, his wealth is estimated at 7.7 billion dollars, making him the 120th richest person in the world according to Forbes magazine.

Shaikh Al-Rajhi is renowned for his strict adherence to Islamic principles in all his dealings and business activities, as well as his personal life. Despite his vast wealth, he leads a simple life. He is one of the world’s leading philanthropists, building mosques and homes for the poor, and supporting local and international charitable organizations. In 2011, he endowed more than 50% of his entire wealth for humanitarian purposes (and the rest for his family), and established a special foundation to monitor this endowment, maintain it, and ensure that it is spent on its intended purposes. Apart from his leading role in establishing the world’s largest and most venerable Islamic banking institution operating in accordance with Islamic teachings, Shaikh Al-Rajhi continues to contribute to humanitarian efforts to fight poverty. His humanitarian foundation also built a non-profit University in his hometown, Al-Bukayriyah, as a nucleus for a university soon to be announced. There are currently three health sciences colleges, as well as other academic institutions for developing Arabic and Islamic studies curricula in different languages and for teaching Arabic language to non-Arabic speakers, in addition to a charity hospital and a center for learning financial skills. Plans are currently underway to build a College of Economics and the Al-Rajhi Financial Center, as well as three large mosques in Hail, Makkah, and Al-Madinah, which, like his mosque in Riyadh, are built to accommodate thousands of worshippers and provide them with places for prayers, education, and seclusion. Shaikh Al-Rajhi hopes that these mosques will eventually be converted into universities. Through investment in major projects, Shaikh Sulaiman Al-Rajhi aims at providing food security and services to industry, construction and other sectors in his country. He also nurtures Quranic studies and provides Quranic memorization groups with financial support and prizes, in addition to printing hundreds of thousands of copies of the Holy Quran for free distribution worldwide, particularly in Africa. Shaikh Al-Rajhi also contributes to the development of Muslim communities through investment in those communities and strengthening of commercial relations with the Islamic world. Al-Rajhi Foundation will also pay attention to the development of highway services, such as gas stations and rest areas. Despite his age and extensive responsibilities, Shaikh Al-Rajhi still devotes some of his time for holding lectures and meetings with Saudi Muslim youth, explaining to them his remarkable personal experience, and urging them to indulge in private business.

In 2000, Shaikh Sulaiman Al-Rajhi was awarded the King Abdulaziz medal.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi earned a B.A. in Islamic Studies from the University of Malaya, and started in the Malaysian civil service in 1964. He left the civil service as a Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sports to become a politician in 1978, and rose to become a Prime Minister of Malaysia 25 years later, in October 2003.

Abdullah held various positions in government, including a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, a Minister of Education, a Minister of Defense, a Minister of Foreign Affairs, a Minister of Home Affairs, and a Minister of Finance. Excelling in diplomacy and international relations, as a Prime Minister, Abdullah sought to improve bilateral and multilateral cooperation, actively leading (among others) the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) when Malaysia assumed the chair of these international organizations.

As Prime Minister, Abdullah introduced the concept of Islam Hadhari to guide development efforts in Malaysia and the wider Islamic world. This move towards progressive Islamic civilisation seeks to make Muslims understand that progress is enjoined by Islam. It is an approach that is compatible with modernity and yet firmly rooted in the noble values and injunctions of Islam. Islam Hadhari espouses ten fundamental principles which were accepted by Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Abdullah focused on human capital development as a key pillar of his Administration. This went beyond merely strengthening lower and higher education in Malaysia, to enhancing mindsets and infusing ethical, moral, and religious values. Science and technology were further promoted, while innovation and creativity were pushed to the fore.

As a Chairman of the OIC, Abdullah waged a war against poverty and the lack of knowledge and development in the Muslim world. Besides emphasizing the enhancement of education in OIC countries, Malaysia sought to share its experience in national economy development by initiating a series of self help projects involving OIC Members and the Islamic Development Bank with the objective of increasing capacities in several poor member countries of the OIC. The immediate purpose was to generate income and provide employment, while the longer-term intention was to assist the OIC countries upgrade their governance and development efforts.

Abdullah also sought to provide an economic face to the OIC, in a bid to enhance trade, business, and investment linkages between Member countries. The World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF), of which Abdullah is the founder patron, continues to be a significant gathering of government and business leaders from the Muslim world and beyond. International Halal fora and trade expositions, initiated by Malaysia, are now held regularly throughout the globe to advance Halal industries, for the benefit of the larger Ummah.

Abdullah stepped down as Prime Minister on 3 April 2009. He remains committed to pursuing development, promoting progressive Islam, and enhancing understanding between the Muslim and Western worlds. He is the Chairman of the Malaysian Institute of Islamic Understanding (IKIM), and a Patron of the Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS) in Kuala Lumpur, which he established in 2009. He is the founding patron for the World Islamic Economic Forum. He holds several government advisory roles, including Malaysia’s regional growth corridors and Malaysia Airlines. Internationally, Abdullah is a member of the InterAction Council, a board member of the BOAO Forum for Asia (BFA) and the World Muslims Foundation, and the Chair of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s grandfather died in the war with Russians and Armenians in 1916. His family moved from Batumi (now Georgia) to Rize, a coastal city on the Black Sea, where he spent his childhood. The family returned to Istanbul, where Erdogan grew up in Kasim Paşa, one of the poorest areas of Istanbul. During his elementary and intermediate school years, he sold lemonade, watermelons, and sesame buns on the streets of Istanbul in order to earn some income and assist his father. He received his high school education in Imam Hatip religious school, and obtained a degree in economics and business from Aksaray School of Economics and Commercial Sciences (now the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at Marmara University). As a youth, he played football in a local club which is currently named after him.

Prime Minister Erdogan’s political career started by joining the Welfare Party under the leadership of Necmettin Erbakan in the late 1970’s. In 1980, a military coup in Turkey banned all political parties. When parties were reinstated in 1982, Erdogan resumed his activities within the Welfare Party, which nominated him for the mayorship of Istanbul, winning a landslide victory over his opponents in 1994. During his tenure, he reversed Istanbul municipality’s debts and enhanced its economic development, raised workers wages, and provided better health and social care for the people. In 1995, he became the president of the Welfare Party’s branch in Istanbul, and was elected to the party’s Central Committee in 1996. In 1998, the Turkish Constitutional Court ruled that the Welfare Party was against the Constitution, shutting it down on grounds of threatening secularism in Turkey and banning its founder, Erbakan, from politics. Erdogan lost his job as mayor of Istanbul and became an active speaker in demonstrations held by the banned party’s supporters. He was convicted of violating Kemalism and imprisoned after reading poetry during a public demonstration, translated as: “The mosques are our barracks; the domes are our helmets; the faithful are our soldiers, and our army is the protector of our faith.” The judges also banned him from holding government posts and election to Parliament.

In 2001, Erdoğan formed the Justice and Development Party, which won the 2003 elections. This made it possible to amend the Constitution, thus enabling Erdogan to become Turkey’s Prime Minister on March 14, 2003. During his premiership, he set a remarkable example of judicious leadership in the Islamic world. His numerous accomplishments include a series of major economic, social and cultural reforms in Turkey that quickly established him as a statesman of enormous dimension, while his positions on various Islamic and global issues, particularly the rights of the Palestinian people, gained him admiration and respect throughout the Islamic world. During his premiership, Erdogan was able to lift his country from economic recession, reduce its debts, attract foreign investors and accomplish an economic growth of 7.3%. He was also able to introduce judiciary reforms and, particularly, a radical social security and health reform package whereby every one under the age of 18 will be entitled for free health care while the retirement age will be gradually increased to 65. In 2008, he introduced a law that prohibits all kinds of smoking in public areas. Erdoğan also instituted several democratic reforms, including major steps towards solving the chronic conflict with Kurds. He offered partial amnesty to Kurdish activists, allowed the use of Kurdish language in public media and restored original names of Kurdish cities and other Kurdish cultural rights.

In foreign policy, Prime Minister Erdogan succeeded in normalizing relations with Greece and signed an agreement with that country’s leaders to create a Combined Joint Operational Unit to participate in Peace Support Operations. He also took a series of successful steps towards reconciliation with Armenia and met numerous times with its President. In particular, he maintained strong diplomatic and trade relationships with Arab and Islamic countries. Erdogan also took important steps towards Turkey’s accession to the European Union.

Prime Minister Erdoğan was widely recognized nationally and internationally by numerous awards for his outstanding achievements and reforms. The European Voice Organization named him “The European of the Year in 2004” while Time magazine listed him twice as one of the “100 most influential people in the world.” In addition, he was awarded fifteen honorary doctorate degrees. While his unyielding position on various Islamic and global issues has gained him the respect of the entire Islamic nation and the rest of the world.

Nationally, Erdogan has pioneered a major campaign of economic, social, and cultural reforms that paved the way for substantial national development and placed Turkey among the world’s leading countries, economically and industrially, without compromising his ideals of democracy and justice. With the strong support of his citizens, he has also rendered an outstanding service to Islam by fiercely defending the rights and just causes of the Islamic nation, particularly the rights of the Palestinian people. At the global level, Erdogan was one of the Muslim founders of the call for understanding between civilizations, and a strong advocate of dialogue, peaceful co-existence, and international cooperation between different cultures throughout the world.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Established by Shaikh Mahmoud Al-Sobki, the Principal Shari’a Society for Cooperation Between Quran and Sunnah Scholars is a non-governmental institution dedicated entirely to the teachings of the Holy Quran and Sunnah and to the concept that the Islamic Da’wa should be practiced purely for Allah’s sake, afar from any worldly political aspirations. Over the past century, the Society evolved into a colossal charity with around 5000 chapters throughout Egypt, in addition to more than 50 institutes for Islamic preachers and Quranic Studies (in which some 20,000 students are enrolled), over 5000 mosques and 1150 offices for memorization of the Holy Quran (attended by about 70,000 male and female students). The Society also administers a special office for the affairs of some 7000 foreign students from 68 Islamic countries who needed financial assistance during their study at aAl-Azhar Islamic University in Egypt.

The present membership of the Society exceeds 400 scholars from Al-Azhar University, in addition to 2000 male and 200 female preachers applying a wide-range of activities organized by the society, such as preaching and teaching activities, weekly and monthly seminars, countrywide Dawah missions, publications (such as Al-Tibyan magazine), and the internet.

The Shari’a Society is also involved in extensive social and humanitarian activities. One of its leading programs is the Orphan Sponsorship Project. This project provides financial, educational, and health-care assistance and follows up to more than half a million orphaned children. The Society also assisted about 254,000 widows in finding income-generating work and contributed towards marriage costs of 40,000 orphaned females. In addition to the Orphan Project, the Society also sponsors 32,000 impoverished students in Egypt through 850 offices across the country. In its endeavor to fight ignorance and illiteracy, the Society also holds adult education classes; so far, it held nearly 1700 such classes from which 12,000 students graduated. The Society also opened several bakeries that provide bread free of charge to 1200 poor families in Egypt’s countryside, and established dozens of small animal production units as gifts to help improve the living conditions of some of the most needy of these families.

The Shari’a Society also established a system of 700 incubators for the management of premature infants and two, large, state-of-the-art hospitals for treatment of cancers and burns, as well as 40 renal dialysis units, a specialized center for medical imaging and another for laser diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases, three centers for gastroscopy and treatment of esophageal varices, and several centers for handicapped individuals. In addition, the Society launches biweekly medical missions i

n which leading physicians in various specialties participate in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in rural Egypt. All medical services and treatments are provided free of charge or at nominal charges to financially disadvantaged Muslim and non-Muslim patients.

Being a member of the International Islamic Council for Dawah and Relief, the Shari’a Society contributes actively to international relief operations in financially under-developed Muslim countries, especially in Palestine where the Society donated medicines, medical equipments, field hospitals and some 1700 tons of food, blankets, and clothes at a total cost of 200 million dollars. In addition, the Society dispatched medical missions and relief materials to some parts of the Sudan, Niger, Seychelles, Mauritania, Somalia, Ethiopia, Indonesia (during the Tsunami), Bangladesh, Kashmir, and Lebanon (during the war).

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud received formal education in Riyadh schools, and education by a group of Islamic scholars. He supplemented his early education with extensive readings in history, culture, and politics. His close involvement for a long time in the Kingdom’s affairs has gained him a profound experience in administration and politics. He commanded the National Guard in 1962, transforming it into a modern military force as well as a cultural institution involved in preservation of national heritage. He became the Second Deputy premier in 1975, and the First Deputy Premier and Crown Prince in 1980. When King Fahd died in 2005, he succeeded him to the throne.

It was well-known about the King that he was courageous and loves reading and sports, especially horseback riding. He cared for education, talented students, and the connection between authentic heritage and modernism through the yearly Al-Jenadriyah cultural and heritage festival in Riyadh, besides his evident contributions in charity and philanthropy work.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Mintimer Shaimiev studied mechanization at Kazan Institute of Agriculture, and served as an agricultural engineer, then as a Chief Engineer and a Manager of the District Association in Menzelisk, and subsequently as an Instructor and a Deputy Head of the Agricultural Department of the Tatar Regional Committee in Kazan. In 1969, at the age of 32, he was appointed a Minister of Land Reform and Water Management of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR). From that time onward, he progressed rapidly through senior political positions, becoming a First Deputy Prime Minister in 1983 and a Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Tatar ASSR in 1985. In 1990, he was elected a Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Tatar ASSR, which adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty, and in 1991, he became the first President of the Republic of Tatarstan.

His farsightedness and judicious policies have turned that country, with its multi-ethnic and multi-religious communities, into an oasis of social understanding, peace, and tolerance. His calm and stabilizing rule has been instrumental to the progress and economic and cultural development of Tatarstan. His accomplishments in different cultural, political, and international fields have led to his re-election for two more terms as President ending in March 2010, after which he decided that he did not want to be re-nominated for President. His other positions include membership of the Russian Federation State Council and co-chairmanship of the United Russia Party.

President Shaimiev’s distinguished services to Islam and Muslims are best exemplified by his efforts to revive Islamic culture and heritage, particularly in Kazan, the capital city of his country, and to disseminate Islamic knowledge and values among Tatarstan Muslims. His accomplishments include building more than 1000 mosques, many of which had been destroyed during previous eras, including 40 mosques in Kazan where only 4 mosques were left during the communist rule. His presidency also witnessed the inception of numerous Islamic schools, societies, and printing houses for the Holy Qur’an and major Islamic books, the establishment of the first Russian Islamic University, which teaches in Russian, Tatarian, and Arabic languages, and the inauguration of the Ghol Sharif mosque, a stunning work of Islamic architecture.

President Shaimiev received numerous prestigious awards and honors both at home and internationally.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.